"Popped up, right around the diamond, who's going to get it? Wright calling, Davis coming, and they collide, and Davis goes down." Gary Cohen
Right after seeing that play, you said, "No!!! Davis is injured...He's day to day, he only rolled his ankle, he wont be out for long. Who's going to be the Mets 1st baseman? Murphy? He stunk there...What could possibly go wrong after Davis was injured?"
David Wright got an MRI on his lower back thinking it was just another check up. The doctor told him he found a stress fracture in his lower back, and that he needed to quit all baseball activity. At that point the Mets were 19-22, and it seemed like the Mets would never get to .500, or have a shot at the playoffs. David Wright, with his injured back, though denying it, was playing awful, and couldn't hit a fastball down the middle mainly because of his injury.
Now, you were thinking, "The Mets aren't a .500 team or contenders for the N.L. East."
You also asked yourself, "Who is going to be the Mets third baseman now that Wright went on the disabled list?"
But, Terry Collins didn't let you down. He answered all your questions quick. He kept pushing this Mets team, and made them a .500 ball club without 3 of his top 4 players on his team (Johan Santana, Ike Davis, David Wright).
The fielding has been good without Davis and Wright only flopping 14 errors since Wright had left. With a fielding percentage of .986, which is .001 worse then on their season. Yet, with young players like Daniel Murphy, Justin Turner, Ruben Tejada, and even Lucas Duda, to keep the Mets steady being the second best fielding team in baseball is very impressive.
Justin Turner has played unbelievable when Wright went down, he ended up taking the third baseman role. Daniel Murphy took the 1st baseman role, hitting lights out, unexpectedly leading the MLB in average since May 21st, 5 days after Wright was on the disabled list.
Then this 21 year old kid, Ruben Tejada was brought up after Chin Lung Hu was not playing good baseball. Tejada came in to play second base. With watching Tejada from last year, many fans were disappointed he was up, but like Murphy and Turner, Tejada started to play very well for a fill in player and won respect from the fans.
Angel Pagan who was injured came back on May 27th. Batting in the .100's, since coming back, Pagan has been great offensively and defensively, and a big spark for the Mets.
The Mets starting pitching has been outstanding in the last 2 weeks. Call-up rookie, Dillon Gee has started the year 7-0, again unexpectedly and Jon Niese has been very strong this whole year.
Since David Wright came out of the Mets lineup the Mets are hitting .280, 2nd best in the MLB, trailing the super star lineup in the Red Sox, but 1st best in the N.L. Without Davis and Wright, the Mets are hitting the ball much better for average.
Mets are the worst in the MLB in home runs in the last month with only 7.
But who's the guy who is helping the Mets bring their batting average up?
Jose Reyes. He is batting .346 leading the N.L. He has 11 triples out of his 97 hits (leads the MLB in hits and triples) on the season, and is seeing the ball much better.
Both Davis and Wright have had major set backs, and both don't expect to be back until the all-star break. The Mets are .500 something that Wright and Davis can't say they were close to when they were playing.
Ike Davis has been out 35 games and David Wright has been out 30 games.
Do the Mets want Wright and Davis in their lineup?
With the way that the Mets are playing right now, how could you want them back? Turner, Murphy and Tejada are making this season fun and are playing really well right now, and show no signs of letting up.
The only positive thing that Wright and Davis give is fielding and home runs, though right now, the Mets have showed you don't need home runs to win games.
Trade Wright? Thats a possibilty, but he needs to get healthy to bring his trade value up.
All in all, Terry Collins has done an amazing job with the team he has had this year. Guys are coming up confident in the batters box (excluding Bay). But for now, the Mets are playing very good ball.
When Wright and Davis do come back, the youngsters might run out of gas, so they could be huge sparks to guide us through August and help the Mets win the N.L. East.
The Mets have won a great deal of respect with their play this season, and look to add even more, as they finally hit .500 on June 15th, only 3.5 games back from the wild card.
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